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How You Can Preserve Cut Flowers
You can preserve the fresh beauty
of flowers for years in their natural vivid colors without a
great deal of work or expense.
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Simply mix a combination of four
parts of borax to one part of silica gel. You can make your mixture
by hand; the borax should be run through a sieve before mixing
with the gel to remove any lumps.
You should treat all of the flowers
to be preserved immediately after picking. Cut off the stems
close to the base of the flower. In the bottom of a plastic bag
or an air-tight jar put down a layer of the preserving powder
and lay a blossom face down on the powder. Pour some additional
powder over the flower until it is well covered. Then lay another
flower face down and cover it, repeating the procedure until
the bag or jar is full.
Put on your lid, or if using
a bag, press down on it lightly to squeeze out all the air. Tie
the bag tightly with string as close to the contents as possible
to prevent air from coming in. |
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Now put your flowers and powder
mixture away in a dry place for about four weeks without peeking
at it. Never store it out of doors.
At the end of the four weeks,
open the container very gently and remove the blossoms one at
a time, blowing the powder off them.
You may make a stem by running
a piece of florist's wire through the lower side of each blossom.
Now you have preserved flowers in their garden freshness.
A good method of prolonging the life of cut flowers is to put
a small amount of ammonium chloride, postassium nitrate, sodium
carbonate or camphor in the water into which the flower stems
are inserted. One or more of these drugs will keep the flowers
fresh by working to oppose germ growth and stimulate the cells.
This method is, however, not permanent like the borax and gel
solution.
Preserving flowers can help you
save your memories of a wedding corsage or a gift bouquet forever.
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